Hi. I clicked on forest records from the forest homepage and it opened in a new window. Just wanted to point out that this is bad practice in web design. If you're going to open a new window for someone you should have a damn good reason. Otherwise, you should let them keep things in the same window and use the back button if they want to go back. (A lot of people get very confused if a now window opens automatically. They don't realise it's happened and they don't know how to get back to the page they came from)

Time to go Jakob Nielsen on these tumblweeds. Pages should only open by default in a new tab/window if they are needed while doing something on the page they were spawned from, e.g. instructions for filling in a form. The rest of the time, if people want a new tab/window, they can hold down Ctrl or something. Or, use some indication that the link will open a new tab/window, so at least people know it will happen.

How does the site look/behave on an iPhone, by the way? If you don't have a tab bar (to maximise screen real estate), then new tabs/windows might be confusing.

I think its pretty standard that links that leave a site open in a new page. Most other sites do this (guardian, ). The funny thing is that these external sites are still forest, so there is an argument to be had there...

I personally prefer new windows to open in this type of circumstance, ie. when the "on page navigation" changes which is the case with these external sites..

Either way, we can change this if thats whats wanted. I don't feel super strong about it. i doubt my above points change your opinion!

Chris zxx

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Maybe it could work? But it will be a kaleidoscopic blend of mysterious shadows and rainbow hued-dreams seen through compassionate tears.

is from 1999, when almost no-one knew how to use the internet, and browser 'tabs' did not really exist in a nice way. these kind of links would actually open a new browser window - which i agree is incredibly annoying. Opening new tabs, i find real good, as i explain earlier.

nope, that still wont convince you, i can see that.. luckiily i care little on this issue. its probably cos i am a power user that i like it!

Chris xx

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Maybe it could work? But it will be a kaleidoscopic blend of mysterious shadows and rainbow hued-dreams seen through compassionate tears.

pages opening in new windows = evil (especially as a mac hot corners user)pages opening in new tabs = ok but not preferable

I normally have about six tabs open anyway when I'm faffing around between bb/facebook/yahoomail/googlemail/guardian/pornblogs and I don't need any more enforced, things would get really messy if each of the sites I was looking at did that. I think the choice should be in the hands of the user as to whether they want to keep the page they have navigated from open, and if they do they can do control/command click instead, it shouldn't be the default option. Also, it's not really leaving to an external site really, not from the users side of things, just from ours because we know they're different sites.

now, a question: is there any way to work in open office where opening a new document opens as tabs rather than new windows. And if not, why not?

xxx

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"We all tend to idealise kindness and tolerance, then wonder why we find ourselves infested with losers and nutcases." Sebastian Horsley